Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Wednesday categorically denied any involvement in directing the State Vigilance and Anti Corruption DGP to tap the phones of some senior Congress leaders of the State. He said he has already ordered a probe into the audio CD in which he is purportedly heard directing the Police Chief to tap the phones of his political opponents.
Calling the audio CDs as totally forged and baseless he said it is the handiwork of his political opponents who are trying to create a misunderstanding with senior leaders like Mr. Shanta Kumar. He reasoned that it has been done to divert the attention of general public from some serious corruption allegations levelled against Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife and their voices caught on a tape which is undergoing a forensic test.
Some unknown people had yesterday couriered a set of three CDs to some select local dallies, containing two audio CDs with Mr. Dhumal’s voice and another video CD showing a BJP MP allegedly taking a packet of currency from somebody wanting a favour in return. The Chief Minister, who has ordered a time bound CID inquiry, and the BJP MP Virender Kashyap have called it a cut and paste job in these fabricated CDs.
The BJP MP who had already reported the matter to the police during his Lok Sabha election campaign in a press conference on Wednesday said some people were involved in this practice even before his elections as they did not want him to be given the party ticket.
The matter is already under investigation in which he had found an unclaimed currency packet near his table in a marriage party in Solan which was later given to police, said Mr. Kashyap. He said he had an unblemished political track record from past 32 years and some people are jealous of his popularity after he started raising peoples’ issues in the
parliament. He said he won the parliamentary elections by getting 20 lakh votes after such allegations earlier also.
It must be reminded that the cases against Virbhadra Singh and his wife who was also a member of parliament were registered in August, 2009, under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The complaint against Mr. Singh alleges misuse of his official position and criminal misconduct when he was the Chief Minister of the state in 1989. Interestingly, they were booked on the basis of an audio CD released by Singh’s political adversary Vijay Singh Mankotia in 2007.
